Jonathan Crane
Skills His current fear toxin is a powerful psychotropic hallucinogen capable of bringing your worst fears to life. Its effects are felt when absorbed into the blood stream. Currently, it can only be absorbed by breathing it in or getting it injected into one’s bloodstream. The toxin is a weaponized hallucinogen, though in low concentrations it will only cause fear and anxiety and maybe minor alterations to reality, no full blown hallucinations. At very high concentrations, the toxin becomes lethal, overloading the brain until it shuts down from the onslaught of fear… The mind can only take so much. The amount of time it takes for the effects to wear off also depends of the concentration, higher concentrations meaning a lot longer time before the chemicals are able to be worked out of your blood stream. Crane is capable of putting the toxin in liquid, gas, and even solid form. He usually releases the through small dispensers strapped onto his wrists. Each is fueled by a highly concentrated canister of toxin gas, as well as a canister of harmless propellant that is of the same density. He is capable of controlling the ratio between the two substances, hence lowering or raising the concentration of toxin released into the air. The whole contraption is very discreet and hard to notice. The device is activated by a quick splay of his hands, the amount released depending on the amount of time he holds his hands in that position. It works by a small trigger of sorts that is connected with the hatch that prevents the toxin from escaping. When pulled fast enough, the hatch opens, releasing the toxin. If it’s pulled too slowly though, nothing will happen. He also usually keeps at least one syringe of a recently developed antidote on him at all times, learning his lesson after the first accidental dosage… The mask is used to enhance the effects of the toxin. By itself, it isn’t too scary, but when viewed through a haze of terror inducing drugs… it takes on a life of its own, becoming a part of the hallucination and making the whole experience even scarier. His mask also has a built in rebreather to help prevent Crane from being affected by his own toxin. Of course, once it’s off… And it can be taken off. Crane is not a fighter. He prefers the power of the mind over the body, manipulating from the sidelines or using goons to do the more physical dirty work. He’s also pretty weak (though he certainly isn’t unfit). Despite that, he is a very fast runner, cultivated from years of running away from bullies and aided by his long leg. Crane can also control his body quite well (Shown by his dancing skills… Yes he can dance. Quite well too.), and his reaction time isn’t too bad either. He even has some experience with certain weapons such as the scythe and pitchfork from his childhood living on a farm. The main issue is that Crane has never bothered to learn how to fight, and if he does… well… he’ll be even more of a force to be reckoned with. Of course, Crane is just a normal human. Sure he’s really smart and stuff, but he has no magic, not ultra-special powers or anything like that. He has to rely completely on his wits and of course his fear toxin. But if that’s ever gone, Crane will find himself in a very precarious position. He can be a bit arrogant in his plans at times, though he always watches out for interferences. Crane also has a fear of crows and now more recently… bats. His biggest weakness though, is his own little brand of insanity: a mixture of extreme obsession and something akin to DID. His obsession with his research and his constant burning need for revenge and retribution against those that have wronged him hinders him greatly. But the sheer brilliance he can reach through his focused passion can truly something to be reckoned with. His new scarecrow persona also adds a level of instability to him, and that is his greatest wild card. … He’s also a great baker. Personality As one may expect, Crane is very calm and controlled, rarely ever becoming outwardly flustered or showing any extreme emotion unless he wants himself to. Crane is also a very private man. He doesn’t share his personal life with anyone, and when he does… well, he usually manages to learn more about the other person then they do him. The reason is that he hates being pitied. Being pitied means that he’s weak, and that is the one thing he promised himself he would never be again. Jonathan Crane in all honesty, is just a guy married to his work, not that he isn’t evil though. He knows he’s hurting people, and he honestly does not care. His research is the main reason for his continued existence, without it… he doesn’t really have much to live for. To illustrate, “Fear Night”, something that he helped to implement, was simply a way to test his theories about fear on a large population. He didn’t care about the money or anything else… it was just a great opportunity to gather data. He is completely and utterly obsessed with the topic of fear: Preventing it, causing it, maybe even feeling it in certain circumstances. If it relates to fear, you can bet that Crane is interested. And now to his madness and his insanity... In a way, it all started with the mask. At first, it was simply a tool for research. It kept Crane from breathing in the toxin and as an added bonus, increased the effects of the toxin on the patients as well. Slowly though, it released a part of him he worked so hard to hide… All of his pent up aggression bubbled up during his short, but misery filled life. Soon, he started calling himself Scarecrow with his mask on, cementing this new persona as well as keeping his identity a secret from the more coherent patients as needed. Even before the toxin, he was quite unstable, but after being sprayed with a concentrated dose of his own toxin, something that should have killed him (It nearly killed Rachel)… Well, it only completed the process. Scarecrow is not a separate personality however. You could say that Scarecrow is a fracture of Crane’s personality, like a broken mirror. Scarecrow is Crane just as Crane is Scarecrow. They’re the same, but different, together, yet separate. Scarecrow in his pure form is something animalistic, almost a force of nature. He doesn’t care what he has to do or the people he has to hurt to get to his goal, whatever it may be at the moment. His view of the world is quite simplistic as well, seeing most people as either enemies or test subjects… neither of which are a good thing. Scarecrow’s a being of action, unlike the more cerebral Crane. Not that the Scarecrow’s stupid of course, it’s just that Scarecrow’s more ruled by emotion, more spur of the moment. And as one may expect, Scarecrow reflects Crane’s mental state at most times, sharing emotions and ideas. Of course, Scarecrow can, and most likely will, evolve as Crane’s own mental stability changes, and if the insanity gets worse… well… the personalities may fracture even more. Appearance Crane prefers a more formal mode of dress; usually wearing suits and occasionally, a sweater vest … you can’t say he doesn’t look good though. He will dress in more casual clothing if necessary, but he will never wears short sleeved shirts or shorts… ever. This is because of the many scars that cover his torso, arms, and even parts of his legs. He doesn’t want others seeing them. He also wears glasses, since he is very slightly nearsighted from all those years of studying and reading, but he can see well enough without them on. He mostly wears them since they make him look smarter. He currently has no specific costume besides his mask, which he keeps on him at all times. Relationships History As he grew older, he slowly became colder and colder, focusing more on his studies and grades, perhaps hoping to get out of the nightmarish town as soon as possible. Unfortunately, his hormones had a different idea for him, as he soon fell in love with a classmate by the name of Sherry Squires. Unfortunately, she was going out with Bo Griggs, one of his major childhood bullies. The week before the school’s Halloween dance, Crane managed up the courage to ask his crush to the dance. She agreed to his intense delight, and he quickly taught himself how to dance, remembering his hero Ichibod’s renowned ability to dance. Soon after, Crane finally read the book Sleepy Hollow, and learned of his “hero’s” cowardly nature, this didn’t dissuade him though, as he was preoccupied by his upcoming date with his crush. But it was all falseness and pretense. He was led into a dark room and that’s when he found himself being chased by Griggs wearing a Jack-o-lantern head, pretending to be the headless horseman. Griggs chased the terrified Jonathan away, laughing at him the whole time. When Crane found out about the perpetrators of the prank and Sherry’s betrayal, he emotionally closed down, his heart becoming ice. He then decided to get his revenge. On the eve of the dance, dressed in a scarecrow costume with his burlap mask, he set out on his plan, hiding out on the road where he knew that the couple would pass. As they drove past, he jumped in front of the gun, carrying a gun. In their fear and surprise, they veered into a tree; the collision killed both of them. Crane felt no remorse, in fact, he felt a dark sort of pleasure that he literally scared them to death. Soon after, he found out that his grandmother was using a chemical to cause the crows to attack him. With that knowledge, Crane set out to discover the chemical, sneaking into his grandmother’s study to teach himself as much about chemistry as he could. Soon, Crane was able to formulate a much weaker of the chemical his grandmother used. He decided to test it out on one his bullies… and it worked, crows swooping down to attack the teen. Unfortunately, he knew that Crane was the cause, and beat him up. While this incident ended with failure, these circumstances built the foundation for Crane’s talent with chemistry and chemicals. A few months later, Crane graduated high school, riding on a full scholarship to Gotham University. The day he left though, his grandmother died of a mysterious heart attack to the sorrow of the young Crane. He didn’t allow this event to delay his flight though, and he soon arrived at Gotham. What most didn’t know was that he was the one that killed her, formulating a chemical that initiated the heart attack. She would never hurt him again. And as one may expect, he never looked came back to the small town again. At Gotham University, he received his Doctorate in Psychology at the very young age of 21. His dissertation was on the etiology of the fear reflex in higher mammals such as humans. He achieved a PhD in chemistry a year later, his earlier experiences with chemistry aiding him in his dissertation greatly. And with that, now known around the medical and scientific community as a genius, he was quickly hired to become a professor at Gotham University. He became known around the campus for his arrogance and harshness in grading. He wasn’t a bad teacher though, far from it. The students that didn’t drop out of his class scored among the highest in the nation in standardized testing. Unfortunately, rumors of him giving drugs to his students started to spread. Those weren’t rumors though, as he truly was testing experimental drugs on a small group of his students. The rumors were soon validated when one of his students attacked a Santa Claus mannequin in a department store. When questioned, she replied she was only trying to face her fears. Further questioning found that she had taken a shot of what Crane called a “Party Potion” an hour before this incident. This only started the decline of his academic career though. Soon after, he accidently injured one of his students during a demonstration on fear, where he shot a flower pot to achieve a fear reaction. That was the last straw, and he was quietly let go, though all the colleagues he had wronged through his brief career quickly spread the true reason of his release. Hoping to increase his chances of employment, he went back to school, achieving a medical degree. As soon as he got out of medical school, he was hired by Arkham Asylum, who seemed to have missed the news about the reasons of his release from his earlier teaching position, that or they were just that desperate. In Arkham, not only was he a psychiatrist, he was also made the head of research and given free rein to research on the patients as deemed necessary. With those “guidelines”, he quickly restarted his experimentations with his “party potion”, the prototype of his fear toxin. He also started using his old mask in his sessions, finding that it aided in his experiments. At that point, one could definitely say that he himself was insane. Soon after, he was approached by a man with the name of Ra’s al Ghul, who gave him that little blue flower and told him of his plan for it. Crane agreed, using the chemical found in the flower to further improve his fear toxin. Soon, it became a mass operation, as he mass produced the fear toxin with the help of various patients. They dumped the toxin into the water systems as the plan entitled. He thought it was to hold the city for ransom, not that he cared about the money of course. He just saw this as a wonderful opportunity to test his theories. Then, the batman came, discovering the plot and stopping it, spraying Crane with his own toxin in the process. He found himself trapped in his own mind and its newly emerging madness, as the toxin fractured his mind. On fear night, that’s when he truly found the Scarecrow, riding out into the night with his mask, though it was cut short with a well aimed taser shot. He soon established himself in the drug business, making fear toxin laced drugs and selling it to the crime lords, though he was caught by the batman. And as he was chained to the railings in that parking complex… that’s when he found himself being dragged into Pandora. Pandora History